East Asian Growth: A Critical Assessment

Abstract

Aadne Cappelen and Jan Fagerberg, ‘East Asian Growth: A Critical Assessment’, Forum for Development Studies, 1995:2, pp. 175–195. It is a well-established fact that a number of East Asian countries have had much faster economic growth than most other countries for several decades. Many observers have held that this growth success is related to the interventionist policy stance that has characterised many of these countries. However, a recent World Bank study—The East Asian Miracle (1993)—downplays the positive role that such policies might have had (and may have elsewhere). This article contains a detailed presentation and assessment of the World bank's analysis of East Asian growth, including the derived policy conclusions. Among the topics discussed are the roles of industrial policy, openness and income distribution (equality) in East Asian growth.